Monster Smash

Godzilla’s Massive Box Office Proves the Power of Blockbusters That Are Actually Good

The cynical thing to say about the weekend’s box office is that, well, obviously, American audiences went for the giant monster movie. But that gives a serious lack of credit to what was accomplished by Godzilla, not just a pretty good and thoughtful blockbuster, but a hit on a level that absolutely no one expected. The movie made $93.2 million in North America over the weekend, according to estimates, plus another $103 million overseas. That domestic debut puts it ahead of everything except Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the year. (Yes, it’s another reason to feel a little sorry for Spider-Man).

It would have been easy for Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment to churn out the Godzilla movie you might expect—loud, stomping, full of money-shot action sequences and slavishly long shots of the big, expensive C.G.I. monster. But Godzilla’s success is due at least partly to how good the movie really is, stretching out its Jaws-style thrills and building up to the climactic San Francisco battle, which riles up audiences to the point that they’re dying to see the big lizard breathe blue fire. When the movie delivers, the audience goes ecstatic—then tells all their friends to go see it.

Elsewhere, Neighbors continued to handily outperform The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in its second weekend, edging close to $100 million domestically, and even Jon Hamm’s modest star vehicle Million Dollar Arm did just fine, making the $11 million its studio reportedly expected. If the success of Godzilla, a remake that’s actually worth a damn, is a template for the rest of the summer, we’ll consider ourselves lucky.